The Localist: The Sweet Stump Poppy Seed Bread

The Sweet Stump’s poppy seed bread was one of my favorite purchases at this past weekends Rockwall Farmers Market. Husband and wife duo, Sean and Andrea Stumpf, along with Andrea’s mother, make up the entire Sweet Stump team. Andrea recalls falling in love with baking at a young age. Family staples were breads with rhubarb, zucchini, and poppy seeds.

Andrea had interest in starting a bakery for years but wasn’t quite sure about the commitment of getting up early each morning to begin the daily baking. In December of 2014, while mailing a package at the post office, she saw a local toffee company mailing off baked goods to customers. This spurred her to do some research on at-home baking laws. After figuring out all of the dos and don’ts, in spring of 2015, she launched The Sweet Stump.

Her signature poppy seed bread is made using the same recipe her mom used. The bread, along with cookies and pizelles (traditional Italian waffle cookies), are sold year round. Their spring and summer breads are lemon-blueberry and cinnamon swirl. While their fall and winter breads are apple-snickerdoodle and chocolate-pumpkin-spice.

We tried all three breads and the cookies. I’ll agree with Andrea, poppy seed was my favorite, but the apple-snickerdoodle came in a very close second. I’m a sucker for anything with a streusel, and this bread has a crumble thats hard to beat. All loafs are $6 each or $5 each when purchasing two or more.

Andrea’s mom sells the goods at the McKinney Farmers Market weekly while her husband, Sean, sells at the Rockwall Market. They take special orders which can be picked up at either market or delivered within 25 miles of Plano. To find out more about The Sweet Stump, and keep up with their weekly markets, visit their Facebook page.